Margate Bazaar

Today was the first Margate Bazaar of the season,organised by  Roxanne from Rough Trade and Lady Tesla's Loose leaves and Mud. I have a selection of cards at  Rough Trade which has a good selection of vintage, upcycled goods and jewellry.

 Margate is gearing up for the summer, with the beach and new steps ready for the visitors and new and old shops opening for the Easter weekend and summer season. Vintage shops are a speciality here, with loads of shops in the old and main town to visit.

Unfortunately the weather is decidedly un Spring like. We had snow and sun and then stronger cold winds, which kept the visitors away. Though there were some hardy souls out after lunch braving the weather.

We had optimistically themed our stall with Spring in mind, maybe the next time we have a stall it will really be Spring. I had a few new painted and mixed media pieces and a new painting of Margate., plus the old wooden cake stand I'd painted with copies of antique blue and white plates.

My painted cake stand, photo from Margate Bazaar facebook page.

Move to Margate

We finally made our move down from London to Margate at the end of November. It's been unpacking settling in and the Christmas/New Year festivities keeping me busy.
Our little terrace house is great and only 10 mins walk from the town, 15 mins to the sea.

I've been down to the beach quite a few times, beachcombing already, collecting shells and stones. I have ideas for strings and mobiles made up of the chalk pebbles with holes worn through. They look like minature Barbara Hepworth sculptures

I've also had the camera out, though the winter weather can be grey and wet, there is a lot more light here on the coast which I am really appreciating.

Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain

Ruth and I visited the Pre Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Modern a little while ago. link to the exhibition site here

Millais's Mariana.

I thought it might be a bit of a block buster show, and it certainly was busy. That's one of the problems I find personally, having to shuffle along side hundreds of people to get near a piece of work, without blocking other people.

The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis.

Still I was pleased to have gone, the Pre Raphaelites were one of the groups of painters that I first admired as a child. A lot of their paintings were in an art encyclopedia that we had at home and I remember spending lots of time regularly looking at such pictures as The Blind  Girl, Hope, The Lady of Shalott, The Scapegoat and The Death of Chatterton.

Such vivid detailing in the paintings influenced my teenage pictures of the natural world.

Ophelia by Millais.

There is definately a quality of light that I respond to now, rather than the detailed depictions, and the spiritual dimension in some of the work.

William Morris's bed from Kelmscott Manor.

Interestingly I found myself more desiring of some of the tapestries, carpets and furniture rather than the main paintings. They did reinspire me to take up decorating some of my furniture again when we've moved.

Mr Brainwash at The Old Sorting Office

I just caught the extention of Mr Brainwash's exhibition at The Old Sorting Office in New Oxford Street. Mr Brainwash aka artist Thierry Guetta is a bit of an infamous street artist from LA.

 This was his first solo European show and I liked the suitable venue of The Old Sorting Office. It retains it's edge, being mostly stripped of it's machinery and industrial in size. BBC Review of the exhibition here

 You are first met by the large pieces of art on the outside walls of the building,including images of the Beatles and Kate Moss. I liked the Queen, guard and corgi with her majesty holding a can of paint and the words "God Save the People" painted next to her.

Inside was a range of art work some of which made me smile and think. Some clever political understanding and understanding of culture. The boxed up life size black cab like the old matchbox toy cars was one to make me smile, very clever, it pulled on my buy me strings.

Lots of 2D work too, mostly prints, multiples using iconic images, Campbells soup as spray cans, referencing Andy Warhol and famous faces, Charlie Chaplin, the Queen, the Rolling Stones,.Madonna and John Lennon to mention a few.

I was pleased to see the work, it stimulated my mind and ideas I've had for more overtly political work. It was good to see the street art/political stance taken with the exhibition being free to enter. And the shop at the end having nothing for sale but being a place where you could choose free things, posters, and postcards.